18: Dr. Jenny Kokai

Episode 18 of the PAD Podcast features our first Master’s graduate from the WashU Performing Arts Department in Dr. Jenny Kokai. Dr. Kokai is an award-winning educator, playwright, scholar, and administrator. She is currently the Director of the School of Theatre and Dance and Professor of Theatre at the University of South Florida (USF). As a scholar, she is recognized internationally for her work on tourism and performance, with a focus on themed and immersive entertainments. In 2017, she published the well-reviewed monograph Swim Pretty: Aquatic Spectacles and the Performance of Race, Gender, and Nature and in 2019 co-edited the anthology, Performance and the Disney Theme Park Experience: The Tourist as Actor. She also continues topublish as a playwright and her most recent work in that arena just came out in the form or two plays for young audiences: Zombie Thoughts and Ballet for Aliens co-written with her son, Oliver Kokai-Means. Ballet for Aliens toured and was presented to over 10,000 elementary school students throughout Utah in 2022-23 with Plan-B Theatre and Zombie Thoughts was turned into an app game by Riverside in Australia. Don’t miss this enlightening conversation with multidisciplinary artist and administrator Dr. Jenny Kokai!